On Sat, 11 Sep 2004, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> Btw, the liberal reformers with their condescending
> theraputic interventionism are creatures of the 1960s;
> there are none today. Your average liberal (no me, I'm
> a wierdo leftist liberal) is all for longer sentences
> and harsher penalties for more offenses, at least as
> mater of public policy.
>From a pragmatic perspective, this claim is strange to
me. Research on recidivism clearly shows that
"condescending therapeutic interventions" (e.g.,
social skills training, job training, education)
dramatically decrease the likelihood that a person
will go back to prison after they are released.
(Moreover, there is some pretty interesting research
demonstrating that longer prison sentences for the
same crime tend to lead to higher recidivism rates!)
Thus Justin seems to be advocating public policy that will increase the crime rate in our society, in the name of retribution. I think it's much more useful to use a pragmatic harm reduction perspective here: what policies will increase public safety? (This is an empirical question; philosophical debates about retribution are irrelevant.)
Miles